Fayetteville Sports Club Hall of Fame announces Class of 2023
The Fayetteville Sports Club has announced the addition of six new members to its Hall of Fame.
Courtney Willis Colborne, Rachel Yepez Rogers, LaToya Pringle Sanders, Kenneth “Kenny” Wilson make up the Class of 2023 Traditional Hall of Fame, while the Legends Class includes Marsha Kouba and Gary Weller.
This year’s banquet will be held on Wednesday, March 29, at Highland Country Club. Tickets are $65 each and can be purchased by contacting Ashley Petroski at 910-323-9195 or ashley@npfp.com.
In order to continue the tradition of the annual banquet, the club is offering the general public the opportunity to become Friends of the Sports Club Hall of Fame. For a fee of $100, individuals will receive one ticket to either this year’s or next year’s banquet and will be individually or corporately recognized during the awards ceremony.
More:Who are the top 30 female athletes from Fayetteville of the 21st century?
More:Who are the top 30 male athletes from Fayetteville of the 21st century?
Here are capsule biographies of each of the 2023 inductees:
Courtney Willis Colborne
Willis was a star athlete at Terry Sanford High School, lettering all four years in volleyball, basketball and soccer. She was honored as the NC High School Athletic Association’s Athlete of the Year in 2000.
She went on to star at East Carolina in basketball. As a senior in 2004, she was among the NCAA leaders with 18.1 points and 10.0 rebounds per game. She left ECU as the fifth-leading scorer in school history and first team in Conference USA.
She was invited to a couple of WNBA training camps but decided to play pro basketball in Europe, spending most of her career in Italy. She made the Italian All-Star game three times and twice led teams to the semifinals of the Italian championship.
Marsha Kouba
Kouba, a prolific distance runner, has run over 120 marathons and at least one in every state in the United States.
In addition, she’s run on all seven continents and has participated in five of the six world major marathons. She was training for her sixth major marathon in Tokyo when a hip ailment forced her to withdraw.
She has competed in 13 Boston Marathons, including 2013 when the race was tragically marred by a terrorist bombing.
Rachel Yepez Rogers
Rogers was such a prolific goal scorer in soccer for Terry Sanford, her coach required her to kick only with her left foot after she scored three goals in a game to keep the score down.
She finished her career as a Bulldog with 166 goals. She was twice named conference player of the year.
She went on to star at Louisiana State. In 2007, she scored 31 points and scored 14 goals for the Tigers. She’s among the career leaders in games played with 83 and finished with 33 goals.
Rogers was a National Player of the Week in 2009.
LaToya Pringle Sanders
Sanders, who starred at Seventy-First High School, is one of the most accomplished basketball players, male or female, in Cumberland County history.
She led the Falcons to back-to-back state 4-A championships in 2003 and 2004. She pulled down a whopping 28 rebounds in the 2003 championship game with Charlotte Vance.
She was heavily recruited and chose to play for Sylvia Hatchell at the University of North Carolina. She was a key player for the Tar Heels, scoring 1,208 career points and averaging 5.7 rebounds. Pringle and North Carolina made the NCAA Women’s Final Four in 2006 and 2007.
She was the 13th overall pick in the 2008 WNBA draft, going to the Phoenix Mercury. She went on to play for the Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks, then spent her last six years with the Washington Mystics.
In her final season, 2019, the Mystics won the WNBA title. She started all 34 games during the championship season.
Gary Weller
Weller enjoyed two successful stints as head football coach at Pine Forest High School.
He spent a total of 15 seasons as head coach, his career with the Trojans was briefly interrupted when he joined the staff of the late Ed Emory at East Carolina from 1980-82.
In his 15 years at Pine Forest Weller only had two losing seasons and averaged nearly seven wins per year with a career record of 98-61.
His two best records were 11-2 in 1978 and 12-1 in 1980.
Weller suffered multiple serious injuries in 2004 when he was deliberately run over by a driver in a stolen van.
After extensive surgery and therapy, he recovered and eventually became a motivational speaker, using his incredible story to inspire others.
Kenneth “Kenny” Wilson
Wilson ended his high school career as the third-leading scorer in South View history with an average of 20.8 points. He was All-State, All-East, made the East-West All-Star game and led the Tigers to the final eight in the NCHSAA playoffs.
He went on to Davidson College where he became one of the top scorers in school history.
He finished his career fifth all-time in scoring for the Wildcats with 1,573 points. He played in all but one game in his career. He scored double figures in 52 of his last 56 games.
He led the team in scoring his final two seasons with 17.4 and 18.3 points per game respectively.
He was twice All-Southern Conference and had one of the best shooting percentages in school history, 53.4 percent.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville Sports Club Hall of Fame announces Class of 2023
